Hundreds of flood alerts have been issued by the Environment Agency for this week.

Serious fl ooding was reported yesterday in Norfolk, Shropshire, Cornwall, Devon and south Wales as the snow was melted by temperatures of 9C.

Forecasters warned the storm, set to hit speeds of 70mph, will arrive on Friday.

While the worst effects will be felt at sea, where waves of 52ft are expected, the gale could still cause havoc on land.

Meteorologist Dr Jeff Masters of Weather Underground said: “The extra-tropical storm is massive and intensified remarkably in 24 hours to Saturday, making it a meteorological ‘bomb’.

“Its pressure level is commonly seen in Category 4 hurricanes and it’s one of the deepest Atlantic extratropical storms in recent decades.”

The rainfall will compound the misery caused by flooding. Warnings were issued across England, Scotland and Wales for the coming week.

Environment Agency spokesperson Innes Thomson said: “There’s a complete cocktail of issues and concerns, with wet weather all over the country, localised flooding, high ground water and spring tides this week.”

Meanwhile, a baby had a miraculous escape yesterday after being blown into the sea while strapped to a buggy.

The terrified six-monthold boy was swept into the icy marina as his mother walked along Watchet Harbour in Somerset.

After hearing her screams for help, dockmaster George Reeder, 63, dived into the 12ft deep water and pulled the pushchair to the wall, before a member of the public helped attach a rope and haul it out of the sea.

The baby spent around five minutes face down in the water but was revived by a passerby.

He was taken to hospital, where he is now thought to be out of intensive care.

And tragedy struck in two separate incidents involving outdoor pursuits.

A canoeist died after getting trapped in debris in the swollen River Swale at Reeth, north Yorks.

Firefighters pulled the man from the water and he was taken to hospital by air ambulance but died later.

Meanwhile climber Ben St Joseph, 22, died after he fell 300ft from Ben Nevis in Scotland on Saturday.

In south Wales, 11 people were injured during a freak hail storm on a busy motorway yesterday.

The shower caused a fivecar crash on the M4 between Port Talbot and Bridgend.

The extreme weather has cost the economy £4billion over the past two weeks in lost working hours, transport chaos, property and vehicle damage, and higher energy bills.

Insurer RSA said hundreds of millions of pounds had been claimed for damage caused by the climate.

And Brits paid £400m in energy bills over the cold snap after household costs increased £1 a day, according to uSwitch.com.

Government forecasters said today will see 3cm of rain in the south-west and tomorrow will bring 2-4cm in the west, with rain also expected later in the week.

“We have been asked by insurer RSA to point out that they have not received ‘hundreds of millions of pounds’ in claims. The figure of hundreds of millions of pounds is an estimate of how much the extreme weather is thought to have cost the economy in one day’s significant travel disruption.”